Joseph Leopold Sigisbert Hugo

Joseph Leopold Sigisbert Hugo (15 November 1773-28 January 1828) was a Lieutenant-General in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. He was the father of famed author Victor Hugo.

Biography
Joseph Leopold Sigisbert Hugo was born in Nancy, France on 15 November 1773, and he enlisted in the French Army at the age of fourteen. He became an officer in 1790 and fought in the French Revolutionary Wars, being wounded at Mainz while serving on the Rhineland front. He also served as a battalion commander in the wars against royalist insurgents in the Vendee and Brittany, capturing 4,000 Vendeens at Vihiers with just 50 troops at his side. At the Battle of Caldiero, he assisted in defeating the Austrians. During the Napoleonic Wars, Hugo served under Joseph Bonaparte, and he fought against the Neapolitan guerrilla leader Fra Diavolo in the countryside of Lazio. In 1808, he was promoted to Colonel as a reward for defeating and executing Diavolo, and he later served as a governor of French-occupied provinces in Spain during the Peninsular War. After the defeat at the 1813 Battle of Vitoria, he lost Emperor Napoleon I's favor, and his name was therefore omitted from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. On 9 January 1814, he was entrusted with defending Thionville, and he held out for 98 days before rallying to King Louis XVIII of France on 14 April 1814. He rallied to Napoleon during the Hundred Days in 1815, and he retired in 1824. He died of apoplexy in Paris in 1828 at the age of 54.